Hon. Brent Cotter: Honourable senators, on a sad day, as we honour the passing of our colleague Ian Shugart, I want to turn, though, to a moment of celebration.

I rise to speak about curling in the presence of curling royalty. You would not know it to look at me today, but I was once a competitive curler and curled once in the Brier in 1981. I can hear you asking, “How did you do?” Well, a partial answer is this: After eight games in the competition, we had zero wins and eight losses.

Over the decades since, people like me were driven out of curling when true athletes were let in. So let’s jump ahead a generation to an era when native Nova Scotian Beth Iskiw, Allie Iskiw’s mother, was one of the outstanding skips and then thirds in women’s curling. She represented both Nova Scotia and Alberta in numerous national championships and, upon joining a team in Alberta as third, was part of the 2012 Scotties Canadian women’s champions and bronze medallists at the world championships.

The team Ms. Iskiw joined was skipped by Heather Nedohin, Alyssa Nedohin’s mother. During that era, Heather Nedohin was one of the top skips in our country, representing Alberta on a number of occasions in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, and she was national champion twice. And, if I may say so, she had one of the most beautiful curling deliveries ever — far more beautiful than her husband’s.

This brings me to Alyssa Nedohin’s father, David Nedohin. David Nedohin will, perhaps, be known to you, but not as well as he should be. He threw the fourth — or skip’s — rocks for the Ferbey Four, a team named after Randy Ferbey. This team won four Canadian men’s championships in the early 2000s and three world championships. Last month, the team was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.

If you know anything about curling, you will know that the fourth — or skip’s — rocks, are by far the most important shots that a team executes during a game; as a former lead, it pains me to admit this. Dave Nedohin’s skip’s rocks led that team to those four Brier and three world championships. During those six or so years, Dave Nedohin was, indisputably, the best curler in the world.

Today, we have before us the future of women’s curling in Ms. Plett, Ms. Nedohin, Ms. Fediuk and Ms. Iskiw. These four young women of incredible talent, intellect, commitment and determination have rocketed to the forefront of women’s curling. My daughter and I follow their exploits, and earlier this week she reported to me that Team Plett, although still at a tender age for a curling team, has broken into the top 100 women’s teams in the world.

Let me end on this point: It is said that talent is passed down through the generations. That seems to be the case here. If so, we can only be grateful, Ms. Plett, that your inheritance of curling talent skipped right over your grandfather and landed in you.

Thank you.